Mark Devlin is a UK-based club and radio DJ and music journalist, specialising in black/ dance music in its many forms.
In more recent years he has begun speaking on radio and at events about the dark forces that have been manipulating the music industry for decades. This led to the publication of his book 'Musical Truth' in 2016, with Volume 2 following in early 2018.
The one-stop shop for all audio output is:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/markdevlin.
E-mail: mark@markdevlin.co.uk

Some 90s radio nostalgia right here. This was the UK Special edition of the Swing Shift on Galaxy 101, Bristol, aired on Easter Monday, 1998. I co-presented this one with a very bubbly Shola Ama, who was the biggest name on the UK street soul scene at the time. It consists of nothing but R&B and hip-hop tracks by British artists. Part 2 rounds off with a live freestyle session between Kent's Lethal, aka Ill Jargon, and Kelz of Bristol's 3PM Crew.

Time for the newest volume of the podcast series that showcases meaningful music for our times from artists who have something worthwhile to say, rather than just going through the motions for corporate profit.

Mark Devlin collates another selection of tracks you'd be hard pressed to find on any mainstream radio station, covering the broad subject areas of truth, consciousness, spirituality and, yes, our old favourite, conspiracy!

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Notwithstanding Professor Griff's claims about Quincy's extracurricular activities (Google it!), here's a chance to revisit my Beatmasters mix containing all the Q's classic productions from Michael Jackson onwards. Naturally, it contain's all MJ's biggest joints, but there's a fair few other offerings too, not least some moments from that classic and much underrated 'Back On The Block' album.

Monday, 21 January 2013

Time for the newest volume of the podcast series that showcases meaningful music for our times from artists who have something worthwhile to say, rather than just going through the motions for corporate profit.

Mark Devlin collates another selection of tracks you'd be hard pressed to find on any mainstream radio station, covering the broad subject areas of truth, consciousness, spirituality and, yes, our old favourite, conspiracy!

Two rap legends have returned with new output to kick off the year. One is Rakim, the lyricist in 80s duo Eric B & Rakim, regarded by many hip-hop purists as one of the greatest of all time. His 'Bring It On' is fairly lacklustre when put beside timeless classics like 'I Know You Got Soul' and 'Eric B Is President', but still stands head and shoulders above most of what passes for 'hip-hop' these days! The other is Raekwon, a stalwart of the Wu Tang Clan. He's recruited fellow 90s player Faith Evans for guest vocals on his 'Hold You Down', which is suitably moody and epic in feel.

Elsewhere in hip-hop, two of the most consistent producers have come with new offerings. 9th Wonder, for a long time the in-house producer of the group Little Brother, has reworked 'Pray' from Jay-Z's 'American Gangster', as part of a newly mixed version of the whole album. This features Jay's missus Beyonce on a cameo, and takes the track into 9th's usual nostalgia-laden old-school territory, complete with some glorious string samples. 9th Wonder has also reworked 'Food' by Masta Killa, another occasional Wu Tang affiliate, in a similar style.

Meanwhile, possibly hip-hop's most prolific producer of all time, DJ Premier, shows no signs of slowing down after more than 20 years in the game. The latest in his colossally-sized repertoire is 'The Truth' by New York Jewish/ American rapper Ill Bill, which bears all of Premo's usual solid, punchy trademarks.

Early in the month came the announcement that Destiny's Child were to reform especially to perform at the US Super Bowl halftime show next month. Ahead of this, a track from the group, 'Nuclear', surfaced, and was presented as a 'brand new single'. It would appear, however, that it's actually a track that was recorded at the time of their 2004 album, 'Destiny Fulfilled', and not used at the time. It's a tactic employed a few times for Michael Jackson singles by the label Sony/ Columbia, also Destiny's Child's label, and the song's cool, breezy feel is certainly reminiscent of the standard R&B sound of a few years ago, in comparison to today's electronic-dominated styles. It's a great track either way.

Music to unplug from the Matrix to! DISL Automatic fits into the angry/ confrontational/ 'conspiracy' music mould, but comes with very real truth and consciousness throughout, and is a razor-sharp lyricist.

The free mixtape here is about twice as long as it needs to be at over 40 tracks, but at least 20 in are very much on-point. Standout tracks are The Sound Of Freedom, Matter Of Time, Hip Hop 4 Change, and Here I Stand, which samples Ennio Morricone's score from 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly'.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

2013's first instalment steps the subject matter up several notches from previous volumes. Having looked in detail at the many manipulation techniques employed in the music industry - and how this in turn slots into the much wider picture of human control - we now go far deeper into the rabbit hole to address questions of life, human consciousness and the very nature of reality itself!

Mark Devlin is joined by hip-hop artist-turned author/ researcher Marcello Assini, and all-round switched-on guy Justin Wiseup for a wide-ranging chat of the sort you don't usually hear in your local pub. This is thought-provoking subject matter for those who have accepted that life is not exactly the way it is presented to us by governments, organised religions and the mainstream media, and are now ready to peer much further beyond the veil to find out more.

Monday, 14 January 2013

Time for another delve into the archives which has turned up my two year-end Swing Shift shows on Galaxy 101 from 1997 - in my opinion the last consistently decent year for R&B and hip-hop before the rot set in! Listen and enjoy.

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Time to exhume some back-in-the-day mixes for another airing. Here's an excursion into 80s and early 90s soul and funk grooves for starters, from the absolute masters of the craft that were Jimmy 'Jam' and Terry Lewis. Enjoy!

If you want to get a feel on what went down over the past 12 months in music - and the entertainment world generally - Virginia rapper Skillz is your man. Each year for the past decade, he's delivered his Rap Up, a humorous five-minute take on the year. His 2012 offering appeared a couple of weeks ago, covering everything from the birth of Jay-Z and Beyonce's daughter to Drake and Chris Brown scrapping in a club. Sadly, however, Skillz has revealed that this is the last year he'll be doing the Rap Up, after presumably reaching burn-out point. Some consolation comes from the fact that UK rapper Mystro, inspired by Skillz, started producing his British take on the same concept a few years ago, and will hopefully continue holding the baton with this popular annual institution.

Katy B earned herself the questionable title of 'queen of dubstep' when she emerged in 2010 with the likes of Katy On A Mission and Lights On. She's been a little quiet of late, but has clearly been putting in the work as a new EP has now appeared entitled Danger. Its five tracks are highly diverse, but the most familiar treatment comes on the song 'Aaliyah', which turns out not to be about the late R&B singer, but about some random femme fatale. It features Geenus, and one of 2012's brightest discoveries, Jessie Ware, (definitely not to be confused with Jessie J!) It's great, moody, bass-heavy stuff.

The Rub Crew out of Brooklyn, New York City, consists of DJ Eleven, DJ Ayres and Cosmo Baker, and they're known for rocking lively and eclectic parties all over the city. They're also known for venturing into the studio occasionally, and Eleven's latest output is a soulful dance track called Last Beat, vocalled by Sharina Doyle. It comes in various mixes, the Kutcorners version being the one I favour.

Catch all these tunes and many more like them on my weekly show on OX105FM. The Sound Of Now runs every Saturday from 6 to 8pm.

Sunday, 6 January 2013

The off-key vibes permeating the first few days of 2013 have seen to it that there's no Listen Again recording of yesterday's radio show, or indeed, of the classic Fish Out Of Water edition of the other week, (technology - it's 'the future' folks - apparently.) But here at least are the Listen Again links for last weekend's show, putting the lid on 2012 for the last time with many of the favourite tracks that I busted on the show.

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Even in spite of the mind-wasting garbage in the mainstream ... 2012 has actually been a fantastic year for real new music! In March, I started The Sound Of Now on OX105FM in Oxford, which was a new experience for me. Rather than focus on strictly hip hop/ R&B/ 'urban', I started to showcase what I considered to be good new music from across different genres - soulful house, garage, bassline, D&B, as well as the underground hip-hop stuff.

It's been hugely encouraging to see so many great tunes still being made, and I'm genuinely inspired by all this stuff. Being open-minded sure pays off. So this year I'm officially retiring my year-end Bangers series to offer two The Sound Of '12 mixes, highlighting my favourite sounds from the past months of the show. Listen without prejudice for two interesting, inspiring and rewarding audio journeys. (Sadly, the automated Gestapo at Soundcloud objected to the algorithms on one of the tracks, hence Mixcloud. But below are the Mediafire links to be able to download them, meanwhile, as Mixcloud doesn't seem to have caught up with that concept yet.)

Mark Devlin is a UK-based club and radio DJ and music journalist, specialising in black/ dance music in its many forms. He’s also written his first book, 'Tales From The Flipside' (available at authorhouse.co.uk and amazon.co.uk) In more recent years he has begun speaking on radio and at events about the dark forces that have been manipulating and controlling the mainstream music industry for decades, and how this ties into the much larger picture of what is really going on in the world.